Animated Atrocities 113/Transcript
I like this show. I really, really do. Arthur, along with The Magic School Bus, were some of my favorite shows growing up. But when a show goes on for 19 seasons like Arthur has, it's bound to have quite a few missteps. I also understand that Arthur is aimed at a particularly young audience, but the same morals still apply here. In fact, I have to be double hard on the morals of this kind of show. And when a high-quality show has a dud, it has a dud. I already reviewed Arthur's Big Hit a while back, like a few years back. And I'm reviewing this episode for most of the same reason. It really bunks up the moral. And this episode bunks up a moral BADLY. I should rephrase this by saying that I don't like D.W. She is not a good character. In most episodes, she comes off as annoying and selfish and you just hate every second that she's on screen. I get it that in the real world, that's how young children may act, but sometimes, you've got to sacrifice realism to write a decent story or create a decent product. How fun would a video game really be if you had to stop running every few minutes to catch your breath? I'll tell you this: that would be far less annoying than some of D.W.'s whining. And this episode is probably her worst appearance, in the entire show! Let's take a look at "D.W.'s Very Bad Mood." The episode starts in... Mrs. Read: A nutritious lunch, all neatly packed for you. Arthur: Gee whiz! Thanks, mother! ...the 1950's. Francine: Arthur! Are you ready? We've never ever been late for school, and we don't want to break our perfect record. Uh... I think there might be somethin' in the water supply. Woody: Somebody's poisoned the water hole! Arthur keeps talking about his perfect family, and everyone is... creepily perfect. Arthur: My life is just about perfect. Except for one little thing... Can you guess? giant D.W. barges into the scene, everyone running in fear Oh, so that's what happened to Fallout. Honestly, the strange part about this scene is the giant monster D.W. destroying everything is more likeable than D.W. in the rest of the episode! The actual episode starts with D.W. complaining about cereal. D.W.: These corn puffs are soggy! Isn't cereal... supposed to be soggy? D.W.: You can't make me! And I'm not going to preschool either! I'm sick of preschool! I'll do what I want! Do you hear me!? DO YOU!? Oh boy, it's going to be one of these episodes... Okay, this episode tries it's best to accurately have a child throwing a massive temper tantrum for the entirety of the 11 minutes. It's loud and it's annoying as hell, and it's not at all pleasant to watch. It probably wouldn't even be pleasant for the target audience. And do you know what the real kicker is? We're supposed to sympathize with D.W. ... Steve Carell: No, God! Please, no! NO! ...when the show is basically aimed at kids Arthur's age. D.W.: I WON'T feel better in the morning! the door, opens it again I won't, I won't, I WON'T! the door, opens it again I WON'T! the door we see D.W. slamming the door Okay, Arthur's mom and dad, I think you forgot your line. D.W., if you keep slamming those doors, you're grounded! Like, it's hard for me to feel ANY kind of sympathy for D.W. I mean, what do you think happens when you let your kids do whatever the hell they want and give them anything that they want? The answer's really simple. They do whatever the hell they want and think that everything is owed to them! Also, why is Arthur the only one who's sleep deprived? At the very least you'd think D.W. slamming the door in an angry tantrum would keep her parents up as well. But no. I mean, listen to this. D.W.: You're just making me go to bed because you don't want me around! You don't love me! You wish I wasn't even born! Maybe this was established in the theme or in the first episode and I just forgot, but does D.W. speak in a frequency that her parents can't hear? Or is this just a Rugrats kind of thing? Or are her parents really so browbeaten by their spoiled child that they just ignore everything that she does? I mean, forget being mad and scolding D.W. Mr. Read doesn't even have a reaction! Yep, the sky is blue, my daughter's an asshole! Francine: Arthur, why don't you just ask her what's wrong? Because you don't want to justify bad behavior like temper tantrums? So Francine comes over to Arthur's house to ask why D.W. is acting up. You know, this could be a very good episode about anger management and how to deal with it, but if the episode is trying to teach that message, it states that you should keep complaining and shouting and annoying everybody. But you know what they say: the squeaky wheel gets the grease! Actually, no. If a wheel keeps squeaking, I'm going to throw it out and get a new wheel that isn't squeaking. That's how the real world works. So now we spend a minute with D.W. just going on rants about how she hates her life and how blah blah blah... SHUT UP! Francine: D.W., can I ask you a question? D.W.: Maybe. Francine: What's the matter with you? gasps and runs away crying This question offends D.W., and... I don't know why... I mean, the reason D.W. is acting up like this is because she didn't get invited to the birthday party of someone she doesn't even like! But throughout the whole episode, she feels entitled and highly justified to this invitation. I mean, why is D.W. quiet about the actual problem if she feels like this is owed to her? Francine: I didn't think she'd get so upset. Mr. Read: It's not your fault, Francine. You're absolutely right. It's your fault! For not scolding your child when she was yelling and ranting at Arthur. It's your fault for completely ignoring the issue. Be parents to your children! But I forgot. Your kids getting bullied at school is karma for hurting the one who could do no wrong. I'm surprised you guys don't pray to D.W. at night. Gonna be a future episode where they start a whole religion around D.W. Francine: I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, but you really are being a total doofus. comedy laughter I just love insults in kid shows that aim really young. Francine: But I'm Arthur's friend. When something's bugging him, I want to help. The message of this episode is very muddled. I mean yes, it's good to help people who are going through problems, but just because you're having said problems doesn't mean you get to be a colossal... ahem... doofus to everyone around you. You see, D.W. is now getting a bunch of attention because she's being rude and throwing temper tantrums, that's going on for days. If you try this in the real world, even if you are a young child, people will push you away and they won't want to deal with you. And ironically enough, people pushing D.W. away was her problem in the first place. So then we have an imagined spot of temper tantrum patrol, where a bunch of cops come to try and arrest D.W. Haha, it's really funny but this kind of behavior, if constantly left unchecked, could realistically lead to D.W. growing into a very troubled child; the kind that gets into physical fist fights all the time, gets into drugs, and doesn't listen to any authority whatsoever. Francine: You know what? I think D.W.'s being a pain because she's upset about something. I reiterate: being upset about something is not an excuse to be an asshole, especially to people who have done nothing wrong! And it's in this scene that the episode goes from intolerable to horrible because it's portrayed that D.W. shouting and generally being unpleasant should be rewarded with sympathy and understanding. I mean even what they're trying to do would not work in the real world. You want a child like D.W. to tell you what's wrong? You need to get her to cool off first! You need to stop all this slamming the doors before she will actually give you a straight answer. Trying to get to the bottom of the situation in the middle of these emotional outbursts is only going to escalate the problem. So they try to figure out why D.W. is constantly throwing temper tantrums by constantly spying on her. Francine: Where'd she go? appears before them, startling Arthur and Francine D.W.: I know what you're doing and it won't work! There... was supposed to be a message in this episode, right? D.W.: Francine, can I ask you a question. Francine: Sure, anything. D.W.: Why don't you go back to your house and stop bothering us! wild crowd cheers D.W. on Mrs. Read: D.W., this being rude to everybody has got to stop! Well, to steal a quote from D.W., just what are you going to do about it? No, I'm serious. I'm dead serious. What are you going to do about it? You see, saying "stop doing this" or "stop doing that" isn't going to work if there's no weight behind it! D.W. knows you're not going to do anything to her at all! Hell, she's been rude to everyone, even her father, for three or four days, and has been slamming doors all night, and you haven't even given her a time out? Five minutes in the fucking corner? Hell, you know what? Arthur and Francine, despite their failings, are better parents than you and your husband in this episode, because they're actually paying attention to your child! D.W.: Well, I know something that might make me feel better. I know I'll feel much better if I could see Krazy Kool Kittens: The Journey Home, this Saturday at 1:00. Mrs. Read: You've seen that movie twice already. NO! The correct answer is: Because you've been rude all week, you're not seeing any movies for quite some time! And you're grounded! Francine: How about if we take her? Arthur and I would love to go! breathes anxiously Oh good, you're teaching that if she acts like an asshole for a week, people will take her to the movies. Francine: You want to find out what's wrong with D.W., right? No. You do! He wants to stop the temper tantrums! And the last thing you want to do is bribe or reward your child to get them to stop with the temper tantrums. Like seriously, it doesn't matter how much they yell or shout, caving in or doing something that they want is something you should not do to end the temper tantrum, because it teaches them that "gimme, gimme" always gets. Remember that we're supposed to be sympathetic to D.W. during this whole episode. So after acting like an asshole for a week, she wants to go to a movie, that she's already seen twice. I'm assuming she's seen it both times in the theaters as well. Even in 1998 when this episode came out, that was pretty expensive. She wanted to go to the movies at this specific time not to watch the movie but to infiltrate and trespass on the birthday party she wasn't invited to. She states that she's not really friends with this person and doesn't really like her and doesn't play with her, and also it's a birthday party to a movie that she's already seen twice. laughing about Arthur: What are you doing? D.W.: Having fun! Loads and loads of fun! Yes, the previews telling me to turn my cellphone off before the movie, which she probably can't even read, is just barrels and barrels of laughs! continues giggling D.W.: Because I have lots and lots of friends! And after D.W. makes a fool out of herself... I... I know you're four, but you're sitting in an end seat next to your brother. They're not blind. ...D.W. decides that she doesn't want to be in the theater anymore. So after D.W. acts like an asshole for a week, gets to go to a movie in the theater that she's already seen twice before in the theater, for a petty reason, to make the popular girl jealous, someone she doesn't even like, without even apologizing for anything, D.W. gets rewarded with ice cream and she also gets to go to Francine's birthday party. Mrs. Read: (...) to Francine's birthday party. D.W.: Yes! Arthur: What?! No way! D.W.: This is better than Lisa's party! This is a third grade party! Just wait till I tell them! just wait! And revenge is always the solution, and you should always seek to make the person who shunned you jealous. W-What was the moral of this episode? Right, bribing people until they accept you, even if you don't like each other. Excellent message for the kids. D.W.'s going to grow up into someone with a massive victim complex, or she's going to be in a system throughout all her adolescence. Have fun, Mr. and Mrs. Read! You know what? You want to know how to be a good parent? Watch what Mr. and Mrs. Read do for D.W. and do, like, the OPPOSITE of that! This episode can go die now! Category:Transcripts Category:Season 4